Duffy said on the program, produced by WISN-TV with WisPolitics.com, that citizens must understand the president’s language when he talks about a balanced approach to the budget. “We have to be clear he is saying we are never going to balance the budget,” he said. “We’ll talk about reducing deficits, but if you ask 50, 100 years from now we will borrow from each one of those years.We’ll never balance it.”

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The Weston Republican said the House, Senate and Obama should produce a bill and then compare to determine the exact terms. “I think it is incumbent on [the president] as a leader to actually come forward with a budget that will be balanced at one point in our future,” Duffy said.

Duffy is also calling for transparency. “If [the President]… will raise all these taxes not just on millionaires and billionaires, but on middle-class Americans, then tell America that and show us how you get to a point of balance.”

According to Duffy, American families, small businesses and manufacturers have cut at least 2 percent out of their budgets. As for the federal government, “there is a lot of fat that we can cut.”

“No one thinks that the federal government runs at 100 percent capacity,”Duffy said. “My concern, though, is if the president wants to make a political move out of this and start to cut actual necessary services that are provided like air traffic controllers at Wisconsin airports, meat inspectors, T.S.A. inspectors and by not allowing kids into the White House to go on their class tour. Those kind of things can be painful.”

Duffy said only wasteful spending should be cut. He gave the example of the transportation expense of the Watermelon Queen and free cell phone programs.

Duffy said he would favor closing tax loopholes and reforming the tax code. “What we are trying to do is raise revenue by growing the economy.”

-- State Reps. Jim Ott and Josh Zepnick were also on “UpFront” to discuss changes to Wisconsin’s drunken driving laws.

“We have a bill that would make all first-time offenders make an in- person appearance in court. You don’t have to do that in all counties in Wisconsin right now,” said Ott, R-Mequon. “I think that bill will get passed.Other bills like making first offenses criminal at point-one-five blood alcohol concentrations and above, that might be a little tougher.”

Zepnick, D-Milwaukee, said rates of individuals driving while intoxicated shines a light on Wisconsin’s culture of celebrating drinking. “I think people do not even realize that they are in a situation where they are abusing it… It becomes a real public health issue.”

Zepnick is also in favor of sobriety check-points. He said he wants to propose a voluntary pilot project to see if the benefits of the program would outweigh the costs.

Tommy Thompson

-- Also on the program was WISN 12 News political reporter Kent Wainscott, who conducted a sit-down interview with former Gov. Tommy Thompson, who lost the Senate race last year to Tammy Baldwin.

Clips from the interview show the former Republican governor and HHS secretary on his farm in Elroy.

Thompson said of the election, “It was a difficult time in my life. I had expected to win, and it was very disappointing not to but you move on. When you get knocked down you either have to stay down… or pick yourself up.”